I read this post on TechCrunch this morning, about the potential explosion of Online Mobs on real-time sites/applications…
In this post Michael Arrington compares FriendFeed specifically to the disease Syphilis and to the fact that it’s going to have to evolve or die/collapse under the weight of online mobs gathering and wreaking online and offline havoc. The reason he compares FriendFeed instead of other realtime applications like Twitter is that with the likes of FriendFeed it’s a more centralised real-time discussion, allowing for a heated issue/discussion to propagate.
But sites like FriendFeed allow the centralization of a conversation to occur, with real time updates appearing on screen without even the need for a refresh. Things can get out of control instantly.
The rest of the article delves into the personal.
I wouldn’t go as far as comparing it to a fatal disease, but is this anything new? Why does he think authoritatian governments are so nervous and controlling of the internet? Precisely to stop anti-government mobs gathering. Sure the real-time factor allows this to get out-of-hand… but how different is it to IRC chat rooms… it would’ve been quite easy to organise the masses in that way too.
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